Election Day Greetings from San Salvador

Greetings everyone,

Another moment to check in from San Salvador. Today is the presidential Election Day, and it´s an odd combination on the streets so far. Things are pretty quiet, as a lot of shops and businesses are closed. It was hard to get out of our neighborhood since most of the minibuses were not running, and we walked quite a ways today to get transport. Every car however, as with all the buses, are flying banners and flags for either the FMLN (left-wing party) or the ARENA (right-wing party). ARENA has been in power for about the last twenty years, and is responsible for most of the human rights abuses over that time. So today carries a lot of hopes for a lot of people for real liberation--not unlike the hope we experienced in the US around our own elections not so long ago. If you need updates on the news, check out CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the Salvadorean People, cispes.org. It may be a few more days before we get around to the email again.

All this is not to say we haven´t been having a lot of fun as well. Jorge's an enthusiastic tour guide, and we've climbed La Puerta el Diablo --'the Devil´s Gateway' --a dual-peaked mountain outside the city; we also went to Apulo, which is a crater lake on top of a now-dormant volcano. Both are stunningly beautiful, and there will be pictures later. We've also spent a lot of time lost and wandering in the streets looking for other little places--we could use a GPS for things like artists' cooperatives and non-profit offices, since they rarely are listed in the phonebook and few neighbors realize they're there. But to be encouraging and friendly, people will tell you directions, like 'over there a few blocks,' even if they don´t really know. We've really built up our walking muscles and also had some really impressive grouchy tired married couple type fights during these moments :) Mostly though, it's been really good.

We also made our pilgrimage to the places important in the life and death of Archbishop Oscar Romero, as well as the six Jesuits killed along with their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America. Jorge used to study here under Jon Sobrino (Sobrino fortunately was out of the country when the killings happened) and the priests who were killed. We met briefly with Sobrino, and also Jorge´s advisor, Dean Brackely. It´s a busy time here on campus and off, since the elections are book-ended with memorial holidays for Romero and Fr. Rutilio Grande, a friend of Romero´s who was among the first of the church workers to be killed, and whose death alerted Romero to the need to address the deteriorating human rights situation here in the late 70's and early 80's.

After our visits to the faculty and to the memorial museum there, we participated in the memorial mass for Fr. Grande. It was led by musician friends of Jorge´s from the seminary and university, some of whom helped to write the Misa Popular Salvadoreno, (the Salvadorean people's liturgy), which many of you will recognize from the hymns making it into our new hymnals these days. I hope we'll be able to use it also when we get started working at our new church, which is bilingual.

We´ve been able to see most of Jorge's family over the course of two visits, and so far everyone has been very warm and welcoming. And they all want to know when we´re producing grandchildren, and surely we will bring them to visit? As soon as possible, we've said. My Spanish has worked well at the house--there´s time to speak slowly, for example, and I´ve had some good conversations with my mother in law unassisted. However, the radio and tv go by way too fast for me to catch on, and it's similar for me trying to understand a conversation between two other people. I´m trying to read the paper in the evenings though, and it's all improving.

Sitting in a maximum-security cell a year ago, or marching in the vigil ten years ago at the School of the Americas, I didn´t expect that I would be here, and certainly not on, er, 'honeymoon.' Granted, a very political one, and spending some time making connections for our future visits in terms of theology, ministry, academics and activism. Life has taken a lot of good turns, no? Time to head out again and see what's happening.

Love to you all and hope to see you in a few weeks when we return.

peace,

Le Anne y Jorge

Greetings from El Salvador!

Greetings everyone!

We have arrived safely in San Salvador and are enjoying being back in Jorge´s home turf, and I am enjoying getting to know my new mother in law. The weather here is between 80 ad 90 degrees during the day, but it cools to 70 at night. We are staying at the Lutheran mission worker´s house and traveling around to other friends and family during the days. Tomorrow we will go to the Jesuit University where Jorge studied and look up some friends there, then hope to get into the Romero memorial later on.

Things are relatively calm ahead of this weekend´s presidential elections. We will be volunteering at the agency coordinating elections observers that day on a variety of tasks. Looking forward to a positive outcome then. Next week after all the excitement here, we´ll head back towards Guatemala and visit Jorge´s friends from the Dominicans.

One difficulty we are having is that the airline has cancelled half its flight schedule, so we will be mildly stranded until the weekend a few days after we planned to return. It´s lovely here, so we certainly don´t feel ´´stuck´´ here, but I have been taking classes in history and polity of the United Church of Christ for our upcoming work at St. John´s, and we will miss one of the weekend intensives.

There´s not a lot of internet access here, but we´ll write again if we get the chance. Peace to you, and see you when we return!

Le Anne y Jorge

Chicago Wedding Reception, 4/25

Dear Ones,

We are making our way through our medical issues this past winter, and our looking forward to our re-scheduled celebrations!

We warmly invite all our friends and loved ones to celebrate our wedding with a Chicago reception:

Saturday, April 25, 2009

McGiffert Hall, Chicago Theological Seminary

5757 S. Woodlawn Ave.

4-7pm

Potluck and Open Mic



Please do not worry about 'traditional' gifts! However, we would very much welcome the gift of your favorite dish or beverage--and, if you are able/willing to include the recipe, we would enjoy learning how to make them on our cooking nights over at the GlobalServe Community.

We also know how many friends we have with the gifts of music, comedy, or poetry, who so rarely have an opportunity to share with others in supportive community. We would like to prepare a space for you to 'star' if you so wish and aren't too shy!

Please come when you can and leave when you must--we will enjoy your company for however long you can join us.

peace to all and hope to see you soon,

Le Anne y Jorge Montes-Clausen